The Nevada State Athletic Commission today voted unanimously to issue a 12-month suspension to former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva for multiple banned substances found in his system before and after a unanimous-decision victory over Nick Diaz at UFC 183.

The commission also fined Silva (33-6 MMA, 16-2 UFC) a total of $380,000 and overturned his decision victory over Diaz (26-9 MMA, 7-6 UFC). His suspension is retroactive to the date of his Jan. 31 headliner in Las Vegas, meaning he is clear to compete Jan. 31, 2016. Per the terms of his suspension, he will need to provide a clean drug test prior to relicensing.

The fine represents the entirety of the former longtime middleweight champion’s $200,000 win bonus and 30 percent of his $600,000 fight purse for the pay-per-view bout, which he won in convincing fashion. Additionally, he is required to reimburse the NSAC for attorney and testing fees.

Silva’s attorney, Nevada-based Michael Alonso, requested lenience on the 40-year-old fighter given his age and previous absence of positive tests. The NSAC was unmoved by the request but wound up ordering a suspension on the longer end of a suggested timeframe of nine to 12 months.

“I think (Silva has) done excellent things, but this is the first time he’s really been subject to enhanced testing,” NSAC commissioner Anthony Marnell, who again emerged as a strong voice on PED usage, said. “I feel there’s some intention here to use the product to come back from a devastating injury.

“There’s definitely knowledge of what’s going on here, and we’re just playing games. And that’s my frustration at all this soft testimony.”

Silva, who long reigned as the sport’s top pound-for-pound fighter before a pair of title loss to current champ Chris Weidman, admitted to using an off-brand sexual enhancement – frequently referred to as Cialis during the hearing – produced in Thailand. He obtained the enhancement, which was contained in an unmarked blue vial, from a onetime training partner who lived in the country. Asked when he stopped using it, he changed his answer in mid-testimony from Jan. 8 to sometime the week prior to the fight.

“I’m human and I make mistakes,” Silva said via translator. “It was definitely a mistake. If I had known this supplement would have had this problem, I would have never taken it.”

Silva also admitted to using a pair of anti-anxiety meds he said were prescribed by a doctor this past November for sciatic nerve pain following a training incident. He said he wasn’t feeling well after the UFC 183 weigh-ins and took the meds to feel better, yet didn’t inform his camp or the commission of his use.

In recommending a harsher punishment, NSAC commissioner Pat Lundvall hammered Silva on his pre-fight medical questionnaire from UFC 183, calling his omission of using the enhancement “intentional falsification.”

Silva, who outpointed Diaz at UFC 183, failed a Jan. 9 out-of-competition drug test ordered by the NSAC and tested positive for drostanolone metabolites and methyl androstane, a form of endogenous testosterone. The former middleweight champion immediately denied the use of any banned substances and promised to fight the NSAC’s findings.

An amended complaint by the NSAC then revealed that Silva passed a Jan. 19 out-of-competition test, but also failed tests administered by the commission prior to and following his Jan. 31 fight with Diaz. He tested positive again for drostanolone metabolites and a pair of anti-anxiety medications, oxazepam and temazepam, which aren’t banned by the commission but allegedly weren’t disclosed by Silva on his pre-fight medical questionnaire.

In subsequent interviews, he said part of his strategy would be to test the supplements he was taking prior to the fight. As it turned out, his supplement use factored most prominently in an answer to the allegations against him.

Silva, via his attorney Michael Alonso, denied knowingly ingesting any performance-enhancers and claimed a supplement taken to enhance sexual performance contained drostanolone while another supplement contained androstane. He also admitted to using anti-anxiety meds “because he was anxious and could not sleep the night before the contest.”

The defense brief also pointed to the results of a steroid test conducted by Quest Diagnostics, which came up negative despite the drostanolone found by the WADA-accredited Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory. Silva asked the NSAC take no disciplinary action against him.

Check back with MMAjunkie for a full workup on Silva’s hearing today in Las Vegas.